Month: July 2015

The new track “Drag Me Down” is the first since Zayn Malik’s departure four months ago.

One Direction is currently on tour in the United States, and the group will return to the U.K. in September. The band announced in a press release that their fifth album will be released this November.

One thousand musicians banded together in Italy to perform the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly” all at once in an attempt to woo the band to come play a show for them.

“The Foo Fighters are not in Romagna since 1997, it’s time to get them back, but we need a crazy idea,” the Rockin’ 1000’s website explains. “We have to organize something that kicks ass worldwide and can be seen by Dave Grohl: We will ask one thousand rockers to play one of their songs, all together and at the same time.”

Hitmakers are the lifeblood of country music. “Songwriting is sort of a 9-to-5 job in Nashville,” says Michael Dulaney, who has collaborated on singles with Tanya Tucker and Jason Aldean. Unlike in other genres, where artists and producers disappear into studios or rented mansions for months, Nashville’s most successful treat the craft more like a profession than a mystical experience. “I write at least 150 songs a year, so there’s really not a ‘writing ritual,’ ” says Rhett Akins, who has 18 career No. 1 singles. “You just hope and pray on the way to the writing session that you’ve got a good idea — or that the person you’re writing with does.”

3. Luke Laird, 37Known for: “American Kids” (Kenny Chesney); “Give Me Back My Hometown” (Eric Church)Why there aren’t more women on country radio: “Some of the best writers are female, but as far as writers in Nashville getting paid to write songs, it’s still more guys. That may have something to do with it.”

4. Nathan Chapman, 38Known for: “Better Than You Left Me” (Mickey Guyton); “Homegrown Honey” (Darius Rucker)Why there aren’t more women on country radio: “I don’t know. I’ve had 16 No. 1s as a producer and songwriter — and 12 of my No. 1s have been with female lead singers. It’s an important issue for me.”

5. Lee Thomas Miller, 46Known for: “Southern Girl” (Tim McGraw); “In Color” (Jamey Johnson)A personal song I’ve written: “My grandfather was in World War II, and we did a whole verse of ‘In Color’ [“In the middle of hell/In 1943”] about it.”

Dierks Bentley on His Bumpy Road to Stardom: ‘I Didn’t See It Working Out for Me’

10. Nicolle Galyon, 31Known for: “We Were Us” (Keith Urban featuring Miranda Lambert); “Automatic” (Miranda Lambert)Why there aren’t more women on country radio: “It’s not a lack of talent. I wish there were more women involved at the high level in record labels to help develop new female artists.”

12. Jon Nite, 35Known for: “We Were Us” (Keith Urban featuring Miranda Lambert); “Beachin’ ” (Jake Owen)Word I overuse in lyrics: “Right now, I am instructed by my publishers not to use ‘truck’ or ‘whiskey.’ The problem is, I drive an F-150 and I live in Bourbon Country.”

15. Liz Rose, 57Known for: “You Belong With Me” (Taylor Swift); “Girl Crush” (Little Big Town)Most surprising place I’ve heard my song: “I was with a group of girls, and we’d been drinking on the beach all day. ‘You Belong With Me’ came on, so I said to the bartender, ‘I wrote that.’ She looked at me and said, ‘Sure you did, lady.’”

19. Josh Kear, 40Known for: “Need You Now” (Lady Antebellum); “Drunk on a Plane” (Dierks Bentley)Most surprising place I’ve heard my song: “I was in Sri Lanka last year. I was holding my daughter, waiting in the bathroom line inside a marketplace, and I heard ‘Need You Now’ over the intercom.”

20. Ross Copperman, 32Known for: “Pirate Flag” (Kenny Chesney); “Tip It on Back” (Dierks Bentley)Word I overuse in lyrics: “We’re all trying to stray from the bro thing, you know? So ‘truck,’ I guess.”

Listen to songs from Nashville’s biggest songwriters (and more music from this issue) in the Spotify playlist below:

Demi Lovato’s highly- anticipated video for “Cool for the Summer” has arrived and Lovatics are pumped.

During her interview with Ryan Seacrest , Demi said that “Cool For The Summer” has several meanings.

“It’s very fun. It’s definitely more provocative. I just think the more you listen to it, the more things it can mean.”

“Cool For The Summer” is the first single off Lovato’s upcoming fifth studio album, due out later this year. This hot new song marks the next step of her music career, giving the singer an edgier sound.

“That’s what this album is: I’m no longer serious. I’m done with like the sob stories and the tales. New chapter, new life, new album, new single. This is a completely new Demi. There’s definitely a lot of provocative songs on the album. There’s also an element that I really wanted to bring to the music. One was the rock element. I wanted to bring back that kind of rock-pop music, but I have a lot of rhythmic flares in there as well. I don’t know! There’s so many things that I wanted to bring back. I grew up listening to soul music, and then I only listened to metal music for a while. So, I have all these influences that influenced this album and me growing up.”

Over the last year, we’ve shared all sorts of interesting studies analyzing trends in popular music, including which artists have the highest vocal range, the average listener’s intelligence and wealth broken down by genre, and the whiteness of music. Now, a new study from musixmatch looks to discover which artists have the largest (and smallest) vocabularies.

Inspired by a similar study focusing strictly on hip-hop vocabulary, musixmatch expanded its data to account for 99 of the best-selling musicians across 25 different genres. Because not everyone of these musicians has the same outfit, musixmatch limited its study to each musician’s 100 densest songs.

The results are fascinating: Eminem has the largest vocabulary, and it’s not even close. His 8,818 words are nearly 2,000 more than second place finisher, Jay Z (6,899). Tupac is No. 3 at 6,596 words. Sensing a trend yet? Of the top six artists with the largest vocab, five are…

Award-winning duo A Great Big World return this week with a brand new single on Epic Records, “Hold Each Other.”

The duo of Ian Axel and Chad King made music history with their #1 global hit “Say Something” with Christina Aguilera. Their sophomore album is due out later this year and “Hold Each Other” is the first track we have heard.

Axel and King explain, “We are hoping that we can inspire people, even just a little, to fearlessly speak their truth when it comes to who they are and who they love.”